Central Bucks South captured sole possession of first place in the Continental Conference while Upper Merion put the finishing touches on a perfect league season and its fifth consecutive conference crown.
CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 3, CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 0 (25-11, 25-20, 25-21)
The Titans rebounded from their first conference loss of the season to defeat their neighboring rival in three sets, clinching sole possession of the conference title. Megan Kaminski led the Titans with eight kills, 15 digs and four aces while Giiuli Frendak had five kills and one ace and Abby Mummert had five kills and four aces. Catherine Fayer also delivered one ace. Freshman setter Kaitlyn Kushman had 34 assists. Jill Danyluk added six kills, and Jayne Mulhern had 15 digs.
Leading the Bucks were Caroline Hauck with six kills and Rachel Baker with five kills. Jess West had 20 assists, and Maddie Klun had four blocks. Most of the Bucks’ starters had at least four digs each, but, according to their coach, the inability to convert those into points hurt the Bucks.
UPPER MERION 3, UPPER DUBLIN 0 (25-14, 25-13, 25-8)
The Vikings captured their fifth consecutive American Conference title with their sweep of the Flying Cardinals. The title was their 11th in 12 years.
Cassidy Koenig had 25 assists, Melanie Ingram had six aces, Casey Griffith had 14 digs, and Kendall Gazzo had a team-high eight kills.
The Vikings, who are 17-0 on the season, will face Cardinal O’Hara in a non-league match on Wednesday.
HATBORO-HORSHAM 3, CHELTENHAM (25-12, 25-17, 25-14)
Carly Black and Kathryn Lucca led the Hatters’ offense with 13 and 10 kills respectively. Lauren Laucella added five kills, two blocks and four service aces. Lucca served three aces and 16 of the team’s points. Caitlin Klotzbach, Candyce Riley and Lucca carried the defense. Setter Sam Jones dished out 31 assists.
COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 3, NESHAMINY 1 (25-18, 25-10, 21-25, 25-21)
The Redskins – who celebrated Senior Night – edged the Indians in the third set, but it wasn’t enough.
“The girls struggled early on but finally woke up in the third game,” Neshaminy coach Kate Livingstone said. “These are some great kids this year, so it’s unfortunate we lost so many close matches.”
Kelly Mason led the Redskins defensively with 19 digs to go along with two aces. Amy Paulits contributed 10 digs, six kills and an ace. Julia Staub had 12 assists and eight digs. Morgan Oberholtzer had nine digs, five kills and a block. Jen Harasim had four kills and two blocks. Sophomore Molly MacDonald had three aces.
The Redskins closed out the regular season with a 6-6 mark in conference play (9-7 overall).
WISSAHICKON 3, ABINGTON 2 (25-23, 17-25, 20-25, 25-23, 15-13)
The Trojans trailed the Ghosts 2-1 but rallied for the dramatic win.
“It certainly was a great way to finish the last match in league play,” Trojan coach Mary Copelli said.
Rachel Philbin and Tara Rogers led the Trojans at the net with eight kills each.
“Ashley Anderson played an exceptional defensive game,” Copelli said.
The Trojans closed out league play with a 7-7 record.
CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 3, SOUDERTON 0 (25-19, 25-14, 25-20)
Haley Wicklum , Courtney Kauffman and Kelsey Arm led a balanced attack with seven kills each. Wicklum also had three aces and three digs while Arm had three aces and three digs. Maddy Legacey contributed two kills, two aces, six digs and four assists, and Madi Staub added two kills and six digs. Ilana Bershtein contributed six digs. Lindsay McIntosh delivered three kills and two service aces while Caroline Davis had 11 assists and three aces.
The Indians were led at the net by Alexa Kluka (four kills), Grace Pinto (three kills) and Miriam Doepner (two kills). Hayley Sparks had eight assists while Cori Watson had two. Megan Miller led the defense with 10 kills while Fabi Telleria and Sparks both had three. Pinto, Kluka and Watson each had a pair of aces.
COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 3, BENSALEM 0
Senior Jenna Hymes led the Golden Hawks with four kills and two aces while junior Danielle Kazokas added three kills and three aces and sophomore Laura DiDonato had four kills and two aces.
MONDAY, OCT. 17, 2011
NORTH PENN 3, CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 2 (21-25, 22-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-12, 15-12)
The Maidens, who had fallen in three of their five most recent matches, appeared to be on their way to another tough loss on Monday, but they rallied to hand the Titans their first league loss of the season.
“They had everything to lose with an undefeated season, and we had nothing to lose,” Maiden senior Meg Gallagher said. “We didn’t want to have any regrets. We had nothing to lose. If we gave it our all and still lost, I wouldn’t have been disappointed.”
The Maidens actually had leads in both the first second games. In the first set, they led 12-9, but the Titans closed it out with a 16-9 run. In the second set, the Maidens led 21-19 after a Stephanie Elechko service ace, but the Titans – after a quick timeout – closed the set with a 6-1 run.
Down but not out, the Maidens rallied to win the next three games. After winning the third game 25-19, they had complete control of the fourth game, opening up a 9-1 lead after an eight-point service run by Alyssa Chiodo and never looking back.
In the winner-take-all fifth set, the Maidens fell behind 9-6 after a hitting error, but a Courtney Gill winner followed by a pair of South hitting errors knotted the score. They led 12-9 after a Kathryn Elechko kill, but the Titans rallied to knot the score 12-12. A Gallagher block was followed by a Titan passing error, and the Maidens won it on a Gallagher kill, erasing memories of the Titans’ sweep one week earlier.
“I had to make some adjustments to get our setter handling the ball, and my changes made it difficult instead of better,” South coach Ulana Keer said. “It came down to a difference of three points in game five that I needed to improve my ball handlers and where they need to place the ball.”
Stephanie Elechko led the Maidens at the net with 13 kills while Gallagher added 12 kills and Kerr, 11 kills. Setter Kendra Allen had 31 assists.
Chiodo, the team’s libero, had 21 digs while sophomore Rachel Allen added 14. Kerr contributed 12 digs and Kendra Allen had seven digs.
“We read them and see what they’re doing, and we adjust to that,” Rachel Allen said. “They do a lot of tips, so we moved our defense up to change it up. We just went all out. We wanted this game, we wanted it really bad.”
Coach Bryan Yost pointed to his team’s defense as the key to the win.
“When these girls are pounding balls like they were, and we’re going from right to left 10 feet and digging up the ball, it’s demoralizing for your hitters,” Yost said. “Once we started doing that – in game four, when Rachel kept digging them and digging them, you could see their faces drop. We were taking them out of their game.”
The Titans, who had already clinched at least a share of the Continental Conference title, were coming off a second place showing at the Unionville Tournament.
“We just did not have it tonight,” Keer said. “Our schedule is very difficult at the end of the season, and we just came off a very big high after playing well over the weekend and almost beating Avon Grove, a top 10 district team, in the final of the tournament.
“My kids are taking a beating, and these back-to-back games are tough to rebound from. We hit very well in games one and two, dominating North Penn, and then we went into a lull and could not sustain high level volleyball. We lost games three and four, crediting North Penn’s home court advantage. It was a tough fight. “
NESHAMINY 3, HARRY S. TRUMAN 1 (17-25, 25-21, 25-15, 25-14)
Amy Paulits had a huge night for the Redskins, delivering 14 kills, 20 digs and five aces. Jen Harasim and Julia Staub also had big nights with Harasim contributing 10 kills and Staub, 30 assists. Morgan Oberholtzer added eight kills and 10 digs. M.E. Easton had six kills and seven digs. Kelly Mason had 12 digs.
“We are a slow starting team, so it took us awhile to find our groove out there,” coach Kate Livingstone said. “Our kids started playing defense, so we were able to hit in the third and fourth games.”
ABINGTON 3, CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 1
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